An Australian man, 28, was found dead Wednesday on a stretch of the Continental Divide Trail in Wyoming after his family reported him missing. Searchers with Teton County Search & Rescue found his body on the west slope of the Tetons near the Wigwams.
He had last communicated on July 23, and his family heard from him through a Garmin GPS device and Facebook Messenger before the contact stopped. When the messages ended, the search began Monday. By Wednesday evening, a helicopter team had spotted a bright orange backpack and then found the body below a steep ridgeline south of North Wigwam Peak.
Available evidence points to a fall from that high-altitude ridge separating Grand Teton National Park and the Jedediah Smith Wilderness. That leaves the hardest question unanswered: how he went over the edge. Search crews knew where to look only after his final signal and the trail he had chosen. He had started in Canada, the northern end of the 3,100-mile Continental Divide Trail that runs through Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico.
The timing made the death stand out beyond one trail search. It was at least the sixth hiking fatality reported across North America that week, including deaths in Colorado, Phoenix, New Hampshire and Banff National Park. Teton County SAR said it sent condolences to the family and friends of the deceased and thanked the federal agencies that helped in the investigation. The body has been found; what remains is the cause of the fall.
